AP PHOTOS: Prayers, candles and Santas for year-end holidays

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Palestinians take a selfie with waiters dressed as Santa Clause in a restaurant on the beach in Gaza City, Sunday Dec. 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

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A Sri Lankan Christian family grieves as municipal cemetery workers carry the body of their family member who died of COVID-19 for cremation in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, Dec. 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

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Santa Claus completes the circle with faith-based motorcycle riders and others as they pray before their 3rd Annual Reindeer Ride outside Mann Meats in Florissant, Mo., Friday, Dec. 24, 2020. Santa, known as T.J. Harris of the Faithful Few motorcycle club, joined a procession to deliver gifts to a girl battling neuroblastoma in St. Peters. (Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

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Ali Rahimi, 53, a volunteer cleric wearing protective clothing prepares for a funeral of Rahmatollah Zakeri, 70, who died from COVID-19 at a cemetery in the Arateh village on the outskirts of the city of Ghaemshahr, in northern Iran, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

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People wearing masks for protection against COVID-19 pray prior to the start of the Christmas Eve Mass at St. Stephen Basilica in Budapest, Hungary, Thursday, Dec. 24, 2020. Countries across Europe celebrate Christmas Eve under the specter of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Laszlo Balogh)

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Indian Christian boys wearing face masks as a precaution against the coronavirus peep through the glass of the church as they are not allowed to attend the Christmas mass due to COVID-19 restrictions in Gauhati, India, Friday, Dec. 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

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An anti-abortion activist holds a rosary during a demonstration against the decriminalization of abortion, outside Congress as lawmakers debate a bill on its legalization, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

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Ultra-Orthodox Jewish yeshiva students light candles on the first day of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020. Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day commemoration of the Jewish uprising in the second century B.C. against the Greek-Syrian kingdom, which had tried to put statues of Greek gods in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

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Ultra-Orthodox Jews take cover as Israeli police use water cannons with stinky water to disperse them as they block a highway during a protest against the detention of a member of their community who refuses to do military service, in Bnei Brak, Israel, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

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Anti-abortion activists rally outside Congress as lawmakers debate a bill on its legalization, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

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Newlyweds Ana Vallejos and Yamil Salcedo perform the traditional “Caporales” Andean dance during their wedding celebration, in La Paz, Bolivia, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020. As a measure to reactivate the economy, the Bolivian government lifted restrictions to help curve the spread of the new coronavirus. Sporting, religious and cultural events may take place publicly until mid-January. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

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Devotees pray as they stay inside marked areas for social distancing at a shrine for Hindu god Ganesh, outside a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

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Relatives of Keyumars Ziaee, 60, who died from COVID-19 mourn at a cemetery in the Shir Kola village on the outskirts of the city of Ghaemshahr, in northern Iran, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

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A Nepalese Hindu devotee lights an oil lamps during Bala Chaturdashi festival on the banks of Bagmati river near Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020. Bala Chaturdashi is celebrated in memory of departed family members by lighting oil lamps and scattering seven types of grain along a prescribed route. Although temples were closed for public small number of people offered their prayers on the Pashupatinath temple premises. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

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Fredy Parra, dressed as Santa Claus, speaks to a girl at a Christmas fair in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 18, 2020. For more than 10 years, children have had their picture taken with Parra at the fair for a small fee. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

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Followers of Saint Lazarus pray during the pilgrimage to the saint’s shrine for his annual feast day in El Rincon neighborhood of Santiago de Las Vegas, Cuba, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. The Catholic saint is also known as the Afro-Cuban Yoruba deity Babalu-Aye, protector of the sick. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

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A man prepares a glass of Cuban rum to celebrate the end of the work of butchering a pig that he and his family are going to eat during the Christmas holidays in Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba, Thursday, Dec. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

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Ultra-orthodox Jewish men gather around the body of Rabbi Aharon David Hadash, the spiritual leader of the Mir Yeshiva, a prominent religious seminary, during his funeral in Jerusalem, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020. The mass ceremony took place despite coronavirus restrictions limiting the size of funerals. Hadash, who was 90 was hospitalized two months ago after he tested positive for COVID-19. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

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Children hold Christmas gifts donated by the volunteer group Un Juguete, Una Buena Noticia,” or One Toy, One Good News, in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Dec.18, 2020. The volunteers are journalists and other media workers who collect donations and hand out toys to poor children. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Santa Claus got around quite a bit last month — despite the pandemic.

There he was speaking to a toddler at a Christmas fair in Venezuela’s capital. Linking arms in a prayer circle with leather-clad members of a faith-based Missouri motorcycle club. In Gaza City, not one but two Santas posed with restaurant-goers for a selfie in front of a tall tree bedecked with ornaments.

The sightings of the red-suited, white-bearded bearer of gifts and good cheer came as people around the world observed Christmas and other year-end holidays, as captured by AP photographers in December.

In Cuba, followers of Saint Lazarus held flowers and prayed during a pilgrimage on his feast day around mid-month; a week later, on Christmas Eve, a man poured a shot of run to celebrate the sidewalk butchering of a pig for his family to eat during the holidays.

In Israel, Ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students lit candles on the first day of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights.

And in Nepal, a devotee’s face glowed orange from an oil lamp on the banks of the Bagmati River during the Hindu festival of Bala Chaturdashi, honoring the memory of departed loved ones.

Amid celebration there was also grief, as the pandemic’s toll climbed to over 1.8 million confirmed dead worldwide as of the end of 2020.

In northern Iran, relatives of a COVID-19 victim mourned in face masks at a funeral amid the gray slabs of a hilltop cemetery.

Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, a family watched from a safe distance as municipal workers in head-to-toe protective equipment carried a coffin bearing a relative who also died from the coronavirus and was to be cremated.

These and more are among the AP’s top faith-related images from December.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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